So, not too long ago I watched a documentary on Netflix called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, directed by Matt D’Avella.

Obviously, it’s about minimalism and if you don’t know what minimalism is, here is my favorite definition of min – i – mal – ism: “The ability to simplify without losing any quality”.

If you’d like to read more you can go to the The Minimalists website and read more about the two main men Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus.

The Eye-Opener

I’ve always been into having the latest models of phones. This has always been my weakest link. It’s an expensive link as a new model comes out every year and every year it gets more and more expensive.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a materialistic person – not more than anyone else, but I got to admit that this documentary opened my eyes towards a whole new world.

Seeing these guys travelling around on tour with nothing but the bare necessities – a few pieces of clothes and loads of underware, hah, you got to watch the documentary to get that. Seeing people live this way – not having to have the latest version of a phone or 100 pieces of clothes to have a good life was really surprising.

Quality over quantity

What do you define as successful? These two guys had great jobs, managing loads of people, making good money and they had everything the world would describe as “the perfect life”.

They both gave this up for the minimalistic lifestyle and I want to give them credit for doing that.

Like the quote up top, these guys figured that they could give up everything – only leaving them with a few things – and rise and grow as human beings at the same time. They really figured out the quality over quantity and I appreciate them (together with 20m+ people) for telling us about this lifestyle.

What About Myself?

I just moved into my new 90m2 apartment. I have a great big TV, big couch, fancy dinner table and other stuff that will definitely mark me as a materialistic kinda fella – and that actually annoys me a bit.

After watching the documentary I went out to buy a GoPro Hero 5 Black because of the upcoming vacations/trips I want to record – when I went out the store, with the GoPro in my hands, I thought about the documentary and thought about returning the camera right away, but I didn’t.

What I’ve come to realize now is that I want to start thinking more about what I really need and not what I want, because I have a lot of things I want. From now on I’m going to start thinking as a minimalist and think twice about every purchase I might do in the future.

A Little Challenge For Ya!

Here is a little challenge I did just to get a taste of the lifestyle. Try it out if you like!

Wrap Up

I’m probably never going to be a full blood minimalist – even though I would love to live as a digital nomad/on the road – but I will make an effort to save my money. That way I can buy memories/trips instead of material things.

Therefore, thank you to The Minimalists for opening my eyes and changing my mentality.